22 THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the terms of that measure. Chief among these new activi- 

 ties were the study of diseases and insects injurious to 

 plants and domestic animals, and the best means of eradicat- 

 ing or suppressing such diseases and insect pests •^'' investi- 

 gating the culture and manufacture of tea, silk, cotton, 

 tobacco, and sugar ;-* introducing new forage plants and 

 grasses to improve grazing conditions in arid sections ;^" 

 studying the effects of the adulteration of various foods;'** 

 collecting statistics relating to the manufacture and food 

 value of margarine, butterine, and other butter substitutes ;*^ 

 and experimenting in the field of argicultural chemistry,'^ 



By 1884. the work of the Department relating to the pro- 

 tection and improvement of the live stock industry of the 

 coimtry had become so extensive that Congress deemed it 

 advisable to create a new bureau, called the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, to have special charge of this work. This 

 bureau was to be placed under the immediate direction of 

 a veterinary surgeon, appointed by the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture.^^ It is noteworthy that this law was the first 

 to confer upon the Department power to regulate the con- 

 duct of citizens, a power which is very important in the per- 

 formance of its present functions. 



The first appropriation for the investigation of subjects 

 relating to forestry was made in 1876.^* Ten years later, a 

 division was established in the Department to further these 

 investigations. 



One writer^' has said that the year 1887 marks the begin- 

 ning of a new stage in the development of American agricul- 



*^ 15 Stat. 283, 298; 20 Stat. L. 206, 240; 24 Stat. L. 100. 



2*21 Stat. L. 292, 294; 22 Stat. L. 408, 410; 12 Stat. L. 682, 691; 

 13 Stat. L. 22, 23 ; 21 Stat. L. 292, 295. 



29 24 Stat. L. 683. 



»°24 Stat. L. 100. 



81 22 Stat. L. 89. 90. 



'2 12 Stat. L. 683. For these and other acts sec, " Laws applicahlc 

 to the Department of Agricuhure," compiled by Otis H. Gates, under 

 the direction of the Sohcitor of the Department. 



^^^22 Stat. L. 31. 



^ 19 Stat. L. 143. 



*' T. N. Carver, Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, 

 vol. iv, p. 68. 



